Chapter 1

“What’s it like being childhood friends with Archmage Lansier?”

Someone has asked her this question before.

She looked at the person as if they were asking a stupid question.

Are you really asking this because you don’t know?

“What do you think?”

“What?”

“Imagine that you and Lansier, not me, have been close friends since childhood. What would you think?”

“Hmm… I’ve got the strongest man in the world as a friend, so wouldn’t it be very reassuring? I think I’d be bragging about it everywhere.”

You wish you could do that, huh?

She let out a sigh, mixed with a bit of laughter.

Yeah. People always thought this way.

However, as the person who currently has a friendship with the said archmage, she can reveal a fact.

It’s a lot harder than you think when you have a childhood friend who is the most powerful archmage in The Empire.

Seriously.

For example, let’s think about what happened today.

It was two o’clock on a slow afternoon.

She started walking towards her study to do some work.

As she was climbing up the stairs, someone called her name from behind.

“Skyla!”

She turned her head and saw him.

His golden hair looked like fine gold. His blue jeweled eyes were slightly droopy, resembling a puppy.

Lansier Soli. He was her childhood friend.

She frowned unknowingly.

Why is he here?

“Skyla, would you like to have a cup of tea with me later?”

Lansier asked with a bright smile as he ran towards her.

“No, I don’t like tea,” she replied, wiping the smile off his face.

“Sky, you dislike it?”

“Yes.”

Brushing aside his offer, she began to walk forward.

“But this is a very delicious tea. It’s the jasmine tea that I bought yesterday from the foreign merchants that came to the Soli’s mansion.”

“I don’t like jasmine tea.”

She replied after receiving the official documents from Austin, the butler waiting in front of the study.

For a second, Austin’s inner thoughts reached her ears.

My lady is too tough on him. The archmage invited you for tea. You could try to visit the Duke of Soli at least once, even if it is late…

She then glared at Austin.

He quickly noticed her gaze and raised his head.

“What is it?”

“I know that much, but I never thought of visiting Duke Soli’s home.”

“Y-Yes?”

“And go tell the coachman to get the carriage ready. I’ll be going out soon.”

“Oh…. Alright.”

For a moment, Austin’s embarrassed thoughts were heard again.

What was it? Was I too obvious? It’s as if the Miss had read my thoughts…….

It’s not as if she had read them, she did read them.

She snorted inwardly.

It’s been almost 20 years since he has worked as a butler in her family, and yet, he still doesn’t know her abilities.

Well, my parents are the only ones who know what I’m capable of. 

As she ignored the helpless butler, she walked into her study.

“Well, how about hibiscus tea instead of jasmine tea?”

The guy who persistently followed her into the study asked her again, with hope.

“It’s not my cup of tea either.”

As she sat on her desk, she lifted her chin and looked through the documents.

Most of the documents were official letters from The Imperial Palace.

While she was digging through the mountains of documents, she heard his voice again next to her.

“Or a plain Lady Grey tea?”

[T/N: it is an actual tea.]

“I don’t like tea.”

“Oh, I see. I remembered that it was delicious since I drank it before, that’s why I brought it up. Well, if not tea, how about juice…..”

“I also hate it.”

“How about cucumber juice?”

“Drink it yourself.”

[QC puppy: AHHAHAHA NOOO POOR ML deadpandaemote ]

“Then come over for a glass of water.”

In the end, he started to cry.

“I’ll go to the North and get you some natural water. If that isn’t enough for you, I’ll go to the neighboring Empire and get some water from the Miracle Spring. I’ll even dig up ten thousand sheets of ice from the Tais mountains to get you some ice. So could you please come over to the dukedom and spend some time with me?”

“…..”

She put down the fountain pen that she was using to sign a document that needed approval.

As she slowly raised her head, she saw a man kneeling next to her desk and staying still.

She let out a deep sigh.

“Lansier.”

“Yes Skyla!”

His eyes began to twinkle as she called his name.

When she looked into his eyes that shined like a piece of blue sapphire, she felt an overwhelming pressure.

“I have to go somewhere later.”

“Where are you going?”

“In two hours, there’s a tea party at the Marchioness of Garnet, and I’ve been invited to it.”

“Oh, really? Then I can go with you!”

Lansier’s face lit up like a candle.

Her response extinguished that candle in an instant.

“Unfortunately, it’s a place only women can gather. You can’t go.”

“Really? But I’m your childhood friend……?”

“Yeah, no.”

Anyone who hears this would know that a childhood friend is just a title. She snorted lightly.

“You can’t go, so go back home. Can’t you see I’m working right now?”

She tried to guilt Lansier into leaving, since she couldn’t see herself working at all with his presence.

“Then I’ll be a woman!”

“Huh?”

“Watch me!”

Lansier stormed out of his seat and turned around.

A sudden wave of mana surrounded Lansier’s body.

And in the next moment, an innocent-looking girl appeared in front of her.

“What do you think? It’s perfect, right?”

Lansier had turned into a woman, laughing as he touched his own cheeks. His pose screamed ‘Give me a compliment!’

“…….”

She was speechless.

Did you turn into a woman just so you could attend a tea party that only women can go to….?

She felt dizzy.

Lansier reignited the extinguished candle by throwing oil onto it.

“…Let’s say that you had turned into a woman, how will you attend the tea party? Only those who have an invitation from the Marchioness can attend the tea party.”

She waved the tea invitation to Lansier. You don’t have this, do you? That’s what she thought.

But that was a very big mistake.

“We can make one right now.”

“…What?”

Instead of answering, Lansier smiled brightly and flicked his finger.

A letter appeared out of nowhere and fell onto his other hand.

“It looks like this, doesn’t it?”

Lansier showed her the letter briefly with a bright smile.

The letter was the exact copy of the invitation to Marquis Garnett’s tea party that she had received.

“Lansier, you…!!”

Frustrated, she quickly turned to look at her hand.

However, contrary to her expectations, the invitation was still in her hand.

“Huh, what? Why are there two invitations?”

“I just made it.”

“Huh?”

“Skyla, I saw your invitation and created a new one right away.”

Lansier proudly proclaimed without losing his bright smile.

“I finished reading the invitation in a second by using speed reading magic. Then, I brought the paper from my room using summing magic, and wrote the invitation with transcription magic. Finally-”

“Stop.”

She didn’t need further explanation from him, she could tell.

Lansier had forged the letter in a blink of an eye using magic spells so advanced that even the master from the magic tower would have difficulty executing them.

She never thought he would waste his talents on something like this.

He was persistent, like a man making a wooden table out of toothpicks. She can’t wait to see if he will continue to be this persistent……………

She opened her mouth again, suppressing her rising blood pressure.

“Listen, Lansier. This tea party is not like the tea parties where you can just enter with any invitation.”

“Why? Are you hiding in the closet?”

[T/N: it means that the ml thinks that the tea party will happen in a closet as it is limited.]

“That’s a cute idea. It’s actually not in the closet, but a meeting of only four people, including myself.”

“Then, there will be five of us. Even if there are five people, we won’t run out of refreshments.”

“I don’t need that kind of reassurance from you.”

She unconsciously frowned a little.

“Think about it, Lansier. It’s a tea party with only four people. How suspicious would it be if a stranger joins a tea party when no one has heard of you?”

“Aha, you’re right.”

Only then, Lansier seemed to understand my logic and nodded.

“Then, I’ll make myself not suspicious.”

“Huh?”

It happened in an instant. The Lansier that stood in front of me disappeared, leaving a speck of dust.

The forged tea invitation letter fell onto the spot where he stood.

Where the hell did he go?

She stood up from her seat, frustrated.

Right when she was about to be worried about the sudden disappearance of Lansier.

“I’m back!”

Lansier had appeared again.

“Whoa!”

“Oh, be careful.”

She almost fell backwards as she was surprised but fortunately for her, Lansier simply grabbed her by using his magic and hugged her.

[QC puppy: just a comment, I bet lansier felt blessed and fortunate at that moment

eggylujah ]

Surprised at being in his arms, she quickly pulled herself up.

“Uh, where did you go?”

“I convinced them.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve managed to convince all the young girls that were participating in the tea party to believe that it was originally a five-person tea party.”

Lansier said that with a bright smile that hung on his lips.

But she was about to go crazy.

“If you have used brainwashing magic, you did not convince them! Go back and undo the magic.”

The third son of the Duke of Soli, Lansier Soli.

He changed his appearance as he pleased, used high-level magic, including perspective magic, and instantly brainwashed three young girls.

That’s right.

Her childhood friend, Lansier, was an archmage that came once in a thousand years.

She felt like everyday was a thousand years because of him.

So, what does it feel like when a childhood friend of yours is an archmage?

She felt that it was anything but annoying.